Venue: Staatstheater Mainz
Director: Matthias Fontheim
Conductor: Florian Csizmadia
Opening Date: 17 May 2014 (8 performances through 5 July)
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Weill’s Broadway musicals continue their ascent in Germany with a new production of Lady in the Dark at Staatstheater Mainz. The show will be performed in Roman Hinze’s German translation, which proved highly successful in Hannover during the 2011-12 season. Intendant Matthias Fontheim will direct in his farewell production at the Staatstheater. The cast features Pascale Pfeuti as Liza, along with Hendrik Richter (Charley Johnson), Stefan Walz (Randy Curtis), and Marcus Mislin (Dr. Brooks).

Weill’s first Broadway hit was daring for its day and has become a landmark of Broadway history. The musical sequences are through-composed and depict Liza Elliott’s dreams as she works with a psychoanalyst to control her depression and anxiety. Moss Hart’s book addressed head-on women’s issues and the then-fashionable subject of Freudian analysis. With Gertrude Lawrence in the lead role and Danny Kaye, Victor Mature, and Macdonald Carey also in the original cast, the show ran well over a year on Broadway and achieved near-legendary status, not only for its up-to-the-minute subject matter but for its opulence and complexity as well. The set relied on four revolving stages and elaborate scenery for the dream sequences.

German stages have embraced Weill’s American works, with Street Scene getting one or two productions every season, along with significant recent revivals of Lady in the Dark in Hannover, Firebrand of Florence in Dresden, and One Touch of Venus in Dessau. See “The Prodigal Returns” in the Kurt Weill Newsletter for a complete discussion of Weill stagings in Germany.

Features

Staatstheater newsletter

Preview article in Frankfurter Rundschau

Article on Lys Symonette’s years in Mainz

Learn more about Lady in the Dark